


To Light

by gayliensighting



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Mass Effect 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 01:19:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16357889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayliensighting/pseuds/gayliensighting
Summary: “I have a lot of people after me and I find myself in need of a new security force,” Nassana explained. “My former head of security didn’t understand the… nuances of the job.”“Oh dear, that is a shame. Don’t worry, Miss Dantius, Eclipse will take care of you. You have my word.”__Mass Effect 2 is never really clear on who orders the hit on Nassana Dantius. This is my theory.





	To Light

Nothing stays hidden forever. The loyalty you bought. The favours you pulled to protect your sister when she turned pirate and started causing trouble all over the Attican Traverse. The Spectre you bribed to keep quiet. Eventually, the residue from all those greasy palms creates a trail that leads directly to you and before you know it, you’ve been ousted by people who want to pretend they aren’t just as corrupt.

On Illium, no one is pretending. Everyone is dirty and everyone knows it. You steal from a thief, it’s a sure thing they’ll never call the cops, which means that in Nos Astra port the galactic elite tend to rely on their own personal, private security force. Sounds better than saying you hire mercenaries to protect your illicit business ventures. When your work encourages personal and professional rivalry, having the extra protection isn’t just smart; it’s necessary. Some people don’t understand that. Those people aren’t cut out for this line of work. That’s how you explain it to your former head of security when you fire her.

_So you’re openly hiring mercs now?_

_Well, when my soon-to-be-former head of security doesn’t have the stomach to take care of threats-_

_Not when ‘take care of’ means cold-blooded murder!_

Nassana rubbed her temples, trying to stave off the familiar headache that always flared up whenever she thought about Seryna’s damned integrity. Seryna would hate that Nassana had invited the Eclipse leader Jona Sederis over to discuss a contract. Nassana shook her head to clear it. Seryna was out of the picture and she had bigger problems to deal with.

The door to Nassana’s office chimed, indicating Jona’s arrival. Nassana pressed a button and the door slid open with a pneumatic whoosh, revealing the Eclipse leader leaning against the outer side of the doorframe, arms crossed loosely and a knowing smirk on her face. There was a brash, intimidating energy about her despite her casual posture. Nassana discreetly looked Jona up and down. Jona was wearing a sharp navy blue suit with the Eclipse sunburst logo emblazoned on the breast. Nassana noted the telltale bulge of a poorly disguised sidearm under Jona’s jacket. A deliberate move on her part, no doubt; a not-so-subtle warning that she meant business.

Nassana swallowed and tried to keep her voice level. “Well, now I feel underdressed.”

Jona chuckled, a distinctive sound that was both snide and cloying. “This is a business meeting, isn’t it? First impressions and all.”

“Your reputation precedes you and it more than speaks for itself.”

Nassana reached behind her and picked up the pair of Thessian Temples she had poured just prior to Jona’s arrival and held one out, wordlessly offering it to the Eclipse leader. Jona sauntered over and accepted the drink.

“You’re not the only one with a reputation,” Jona said. She stood too close, strategically trapping Nassana between her imposing frame and Nassana’s own desk. “A diplomatic emissary on the Citadel, fired for having ties to a slaver gang and bribing public officials. Now you’re dabbling in white collar crime.”

Nassana shrugged. “So I wanted career change. Something less cutthroat than politics.”

“The pay’s better too,” Jona said with a smirk.

“Turns out it’s hard to live without money once you’ve gotten used to having it.” Nassana sighed. “After they fired me I no longer had any diplomatic privileges, but I wasn’t without connections; people who owed me favours. It wasn’t too difficult getting set up here.”

“I think you’ll fit right in.” Jona paused to take a drink, steadily maintaining eye contact with Nassana as she sipped sensually. It was Nassana who looked away first. “So, what can Eclipse –what can _I_ – do for you?”

“I have a lot of people after me and I find myself in need of a new security force,” Nassana explained. “My former head of security didn’t understand the… nuances of the job.”

“Oh dear, that _is_ a shame. Don’t worry, Miss Dantius, Eclipse will take care of you. You have my word.”

 

About a month after her meeting with Nassana, Jona Sederis went down to Eternity lounge to case for work. Many of Illium’s elite passed through the doors at one point or another and one never knew what sort of contacts could be made or information gleaned. She made her way over to the bar and ordered a shot.

While she waited for her drink she turned her attention to the news feed on the screen above the bar. This evening’s story was about the murder of the CEO of the Illium branch of Saronis Applications, a Salarian owned and operated tech company. In the course of normal events on Illium, people sometimes got murdered. That alone wasn’t enough to raise a media panic, – in fact, there had been several incidents recently and people hardly batted an eye – but if you picked a victim who was rich enough or important enough, heads would roll. Jona wondered who could be stupid enough to kick that hornet’s nest.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jona spotted a lone Blue Suns merc seated further down the bar. He looked up from his glass, a crooked smile spreading across his face when he saw her, like he couldn’t believe his good luck.

“Drownin’ your sorrows, Eclipse?” he called.

Jona scoffed at the man. If he had the nerve to taunt her openly, it was likely he only recognized the uniform, not the woman wearing it. “Are you just here to make vague statements or did you actually have a point?”

The merc slid off of his stool and moved to occupy the one next to Jona. He leaned in close as if to whisper, but his volume didn’t match his body language. Jona flinched away slightly when he shout-slurred into her ear.

“I heard you guys’ve been havin’ a rough time lately: that you were becomin’ a full-on ex…” – he fumbled with the word – “Extortion racket! ‘An a buncha your clients dropped ya they found out.”

Jona didn’t usually take the drunken bravado of her competition to heart, but the smugness in the man’s voice made her wary.

“I don’t know where you got your information,” she began, but the Blue Sun cut her off.

“Hey,” he said, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I ain’t judgin.’ It woulda been a nice little scheme if it’d worked.” He took another swig of his drink and shook his head. “Rich people think they’re untouchable. They don’t like bein’ reminded how powerless they really are.”

“Poetic,” Jona sneered. “You should embroider that on a pillow.”

“You know,” the merc said, a suggestive edge to his voice, “If you wanna jump ship, the Blue Suns are hiring. You’d look good in this armor.”

At that moment the Asari bartender stopped in front of Jona and leaned her elbows on the bar. “Is this guy bothering you?” she asked, nodding towards the merc. Though she kept her expression neutral, her gravelly voice betrayed the exasperation she felt. “Want me to beat him with his own spine?”

“No thanks, I’ve got it.” Jona grabbed the merc’s hand, which had found its way to her thigh, and bent it backward. He yelped and tried to struggle out of her grasp. She held firm for a few satisfying seconds before letting go.

“Bitch!” he yelled, cradling his wrist. “I think you broke my hand!”

“Get lost, Blue Scum,” Jona said, leaning back in her seat and fixing him with an icy glare. He muttered something unintelligible and shuffled away, disappearing into the crowd.

“Thanks for not making a mess,” the bartender said, passively. “I just cleaned the bar.”

 

Jona left Eternity after only an hour. She was frustrated and more than a little on edge. Everyone she tried to talk to that night seemed unusually suspicious of Eclipse, and she was growing ever more obsessed with what the Blue Sun had said. What had he meant by ‘extortion racket?’ Sure, Eclipse were trained killers, but they were honest about it!

She didn’t have to wonder long though. Her omni-tool pinged, signifying that she had an incoming call. She made a quick detour over toward a secluded stretch of the balcony overlooking the Nos Astra trading floor and answered the call. Before she could even get out a proper greeting, she was interrupted by the shrill tirade of Laurel Riallis, one of Eclipse’s wealthiest long-term clients.

“Jona, what the hell? I’ve been hearing that Eclipse was behind the murders in the port. I hired you for protection, but apparently the biggest threat to me is you!”

“What? I don’t know what you’re taking about! Laurel, please calm down and tell me what’s happening.”

Laurel blew out an angry breath before continuing, more slowly this time. “The string of murders the past few weeks, rumor is that they were carried out by Eclipse agents.”

Laurel’s accusation sent chills down Jona’s spine. She gritted her teeth and said, evenly, “Not at my behest. Can you tell me where you heard this?”

“It’s all over Nos Astra. I knew when I hired Eclipse that you weren’t above murder, but with the Saronis Applications exec dead all your other high-profile clients are getting nervous. I can’t have your mercs working for me if I’m expecting them to shoot me in the back!”

“Wait! Don’t cancel our contract just yet. Let me get to the bottom of this.”

“You have until the end of the weekend.”

The omni-tool went dark as Laurel cut off the call. Jona swore and unleashed a warp field on an exquisitely shaped topiary. The bush disintegrated in equally dramatic fashion. Jona stalked over to where she had parked her skycar and revved the engine. She had just under forty-eight hours to ruin some bastard’s life before they ruined her organization.

 

Jona paced up and down her office in Eclipse headquarters. She sent Sayn, her Salarian second-in-command, to track down whoever was ordering her troops to commit the murders. She had been too busy doing damage control with Eclipse’s entire client base to involve herself in the investigation personally. A series of muffled beeps told her that someone in the hall was keying in the entrance code to her office. Sayn; he was the only other person who knew the code.

“Tell me you have something,” she said, curtly, as he stepped into the room.

Sayn blinked nervously. He had always been twitchy, even for a Salarian. “The victims had one thing in common: they were all enemies of Nassana Dantius. I checked with our agents who had been assigned to her. They confirmed that they were acting under her orders when they killed her rivals. Apparently she wanted to ‘get them before they got her.’”

Jona’s biotics flared, dousing the room in a cool blue glow. “Nassana!” she spat. “That conniving little bitch! Wasting Eclipse’s time with her bullshit personal grudges and paranoid delusions. I should have known from that business with her sister that she lets things get personal too easily.”

“Uh-” Sayn started to say something, but the words froze in his throat when he caught Jona looking daggers at him.

“And you! As if Eclipse losing credibility isn’t bad enough, explain to me why I had to hear about it from the Blue Scum! Why wasn’t my Second on top of it?”

“Uh, well,” Sayn stuttered, “We, we had no idea about these rumors, Jona. Eclipse routinely carries out assassinations, so Nassana’s requests didn’t raise any red flags. And, well, you did accept the contract from her personally…”

“You’re blaming me?” Jona snapped.

Sayn raised an arm defensively. “N-no! No, of course not!”

“We need to fix this, Sayn!”

“Right, yes, so we’ll pull the contract-”

“It’s not that simple!” Jona resumed pacing. “If we don’t fulfill the demands of the contract, or if we back out, it makes Eclipse look incompetent at best and disloyal at worst.”

“So we find some way to make Nassana pull the trigger on our partnership.”

Jona stopped and turned slowly, thoughtfully, to face Sayn. When she spoke, her voice was unnervingly calm. “I think it would be better if we pull the trigger on her.”

“I… see. But, how are we going to do that?” Sayn asked, panic creeping into his voice. “We can’t have one of our own agents kill her. It would be a PR disaster if word got out that Eclipse betrayed a client like that. We’d never work in the Terminus systems again!”

“That’s why we’re outsourcing this one. Find me someone good, someone discreet. And be quick about it.”

Sayn looked down at his hands, carefully avoiding Jona’s gaze. “You, you want _me_ to pick someone to kill Nassana Dantius?”

Jona grabbed Sayn by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in close, forcing him to look her in the eyes. “You’re already on thin fucking ice for letting this situation get so far out of hand. This is your chance to remind me why you deserve to be my Second.”

“I’ll take care of it, Jona,” Sayn promised, trying, and failing, to hide the fear in his voice.

Jona released him and he scurried away. Just before he reached the door, she called after him.

“Sayn?”

He stopped and turned around sheepishly, but said nothing.

“Don’t fuck it up.”

 

Jona checked the clock on her omni-tool for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour. She had done some serious smooth talking to hold onto her clients as word spread of Eclipse’s involvement in the murder of the Saronis Applications exec. Even so, two had already left and in twelve hours, if she hadn’t dealt with Nassana by then, Laurel Riallis would follow.

The omni-tool pinged; an incoming call from Sayn.

“What have you got?” Jona demanded.

“I’ve been in touch with some of my old contacts. It wasn’t easy on such short notice, but-”

“Ticking clock here, Sayn!”

“Oh, uh, right. I’ve found someone for the job. We’re coming up to meet you right now.”

Jona grinned wickedly. “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Almost immediately after she hung up, the door to her office opened and Sayn entered, looking uncharacteristically confident, with a Drell in tow.

Sayn gestured to his companion. “Jona, this is Thane Krios.”

The Drell acknowledged her with a stoic nod.

“Thane has worked as an assassin for decades. He’s an infiltration specialist, never been caught, and his victims never see him coming. He’s basically a ghost.”

“Well, I like what I’m hearing so far,” Jona said, addressing Thane. “We need you to take out an Asari businesswoman named-”

“Nassana Dantius,” Thane finished. “Your associate explained the situation.”

“We’re on a bit of a tight schedule here, so I don’t care how you do it just so long as you can finish the job by sunrise.”

Thane nodded thoughtfully. If he was nervous about the deadline, he didn’t show it. “I can manage that.”

“She’s holed up in her penthouse in the Dantius Towers,” said Sayn. “She’s got a lot of our agents guarding the place.”

“Our troops are expendable,” Jona said to Thane. “But they’re also expensive. Try not to kill too many if you can avoid it.”

“Do you have any information about the building itself?” Thane asked.

Jona shook her head. “I’ve only been there once, but I bet her former head of security-” Jona trailed off, forgetting the name. She snapped her fingers at Sayn.

“Seryna,” he supplied.

“Seryna could give you the rundown. Nassana fired her, so I can’t image she’s feeling any loyalty to her former employer.”

“Thank you,” Thane replied. “I will look into that.”

Jona clapped her hands together decisively. “Good. Now, there’s just the matter of your fee.”

Thane held up a webbed hand. “I accept your commission, but there will be no charge.”

Jona narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Don’t expect me to believe you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You must want something in return.”

Thane’s reply was frustratingly cryptic. “I do, but it’s not something you can give me.”

Jone side-eyed Sayn. He gave her a slight nod, sure of Thane’s intentions and the decision to hire him. Jona sighed in resignation.

“Alright, Mr. Krios. You’re hired.”

 

Jona took a sip of Kralla’s Kiss, a brand of expensive Asari liquor, and surveyed the towering buildings of the Nos Astra port silhouetted against the deepening red of the sunset sky. In the distance she could make out the twin spires of the Dantius Towers, connected at the top by a skybridge. Everything was ready to go for tonight. Sayn had tracked down Seryna at the transit hub and, like Jona suspected, she was all too happy to stick it to her former employer. Thane had everything planned out and would be arriving at the Dantius Towers any minute now.

He had been patched into Jona and Sayn’s private communication channel so that he could keep them updated of his progress. The channel crackled to life and Thane’s deep voice came through loud and clear.

“I’ve made it up to the penthouse and am in position. Just waiting for the opportune moment.”

“How long will that take?” Even though there was no need for it, Jona realized that she was whispering.

“At this rate, not long.”

There was an intonation to his voice that Jona couldn’t quite identify. He sounded almost… proud? Impressed?

“Krios!” Jona hissed. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve got to go,” he replied. “My distraction just arrived.”

“Krios!”

Jona was yelling now, but the comm channel had gone dead. Jona looked over at Sayn, who shrugged helplessly.

“Fuck!”

 

“I just – all I’m saying is that I don’t understand why you’re so angry.”

Jona had just finished sending a message to Laurel informing her that the threat had been dealt with and Eclipse remained loyal to Illium’s elite. She _was_ glad that Nassana had been dealt with, but all of the Eclipse troops in the Dantius Towers were now dead, killed by some interloper who had also absconded with the assassin Thane. At least the towers’ security cam footage had allowed them to get a good look at their surprise guest’s face. Sayn was typing away frantically on his omni-tool, working to get an ID.

Jona’s biotics flared along with her temper, and she squeezed the wine glass in her hand until it shattered, sending shards flying across the room. Sayn backed away, visibly trembling.

“I, I, I did what you asked, Jona. Thane did the job; Nassana’s dead.”

“True enough,” Jona conceded. “I guess you can do some things right, Sayn. When you put your mind to it.”

Sayn looked down and muttered, “Let’s just put this incident behind us.”

“A lot of my troops are dead. Someone will have to pay for that.” Jona turned back toward the window. “Have you identified that soldier yet?”

“Shepard. Alliance Commander.”

A devilish grin slowly spread across Jona’s face. Shepard had disappeared for the moment, but Jona would have her revenge. She would hunt Shepard down, no matter how long it took. Nothing stays hidden forever.


End file.
